By Edward Chaykovsky
Last Saturday night at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao (59-6-2, 38KOs) snapped a seven-month layoff to capture the WBO welterweight belt with a twelve round unanimous decision over Jessie Vargas.
Vargas was initially scheduled to unify with IBF world champion Kell Brook (36-1, 25KOs) in September. Brook walked away from the fight to accept a more lucrative opportunity against WBA/WBC/IBF/IBO middleweight champion Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin.
When Brook finalized a deal to face Golovkin, Pacquiao snapped his short-lived retirement to fight Vargas.
A few days prior to the fight with Vargas, Pacquiao made some very interesting comments.
Pacquiao claimed that Brook's gusty performance against Golovkin had inspired him to return to the ring. The timeline doesn't make sense or Pacquiao is a little confused. When Brook fought Golovkin, Pacquiao had already announced his comeback weeks earlier. In fact, Brook's fight with Golovkin was on September 10 and Pacquiao's press conference to announce the fight with Vargas had taken pace two days prior, on September 8.
Either way, Brook - who currently owes a mandatory defense to Errol Spence - would love to unify with Pacquiao. Brook is still recovering from a fractured orbital bone that was suffered in the loss to Golovkin.
"I'd love that [fight]. I heard that I inspired him during the Golovkin fight and it makes sense for us to unify the division at welterweight," Brook told Sky Sports. "I am just excited and privileged I am a champion amongst those names in the welterweight division, my name and profile has risen quite highly after the Golovkin fight. I am looking forward to training hard and hopefully a big massive name will come along again."
Another name in the news was retired former five division world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr., who sat ringside to watch Pacquiao's fight last weekend.
"I can definitely see him coming back. He's not training and being at these fights for no reason, he's going to come back, and he's just biding his time," Brook said.
